Dearest Friends and Family,

Greetings to you in this wonderful new year in the name of our loving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It feels so good to be sitting down at the computer and writing to you again. It seems like a very long time. Much has transpired in our lives and I am sure the same is true for you.

We have added many new persons to our friends and family email list. Some are new supporting churches, some are new friends we met while in the US, some email addresses came in Christmas letters and cards. We welcome each of you. Since we have been writing emails for almost 2 years, you may find that I speak of something that does not make any sense to you. If I do and you have questions, please feel free to email us and we will try to answer your questions.

While visiting with some close friends, they mentioned how they would love to email us but felt they could not due to my requests in previous emails. I realized that I had not made myself clear at all. Please let me explain. We love emails. We love to hear about you and your lives, your church and its ministry. We are never too busy to read personal emails. We may not always have the time to answer them but we do love them. Your lives are important to us. Your news is of interest to us. We consider personal emails a gift. What I have requested or at least meant to request is that you not send us long forwarded messages --- those lovely stories that email people find in their box daily (if my family is typical). We do have to pay a long distance fee to send and receive emails. Very often the forwarded stories are very long and thus very costly to download. Often, we receive the same story from many people. We have been on some peoples forwarded messages list and received many daily. Thus what we are requesting is that you send personal news but not the stories or jokes or pictures. We have email but not internet as internet is too costly. Thus, we would love to hear your personal news so please feel free to write us anytime --- all the time!

We had such a marvelous time in the US. We had gone home to spend this time with family and certainly accomplished that. Being "home" for Christmas is the "bestest" Christmas gift ever.

We started our trip in Chicago with our daughter, Corrie, and her husband, Brent. What a joy it was to see them and their apartment, meet their friends, attend their church. During our stay there my mom flew to Chicago to meet us. Then Corrie, mom, Bill and I (Brent is a computer person and had to be close to work because of the Y2K) drove to Oklahoma City and spent a marvelous day with Bill's brother and family. From there we drove to Irving, TX were we stayed with close friends and spent time in our home church, Plymouth Park UMC. There at church on 19 Dec. I think I received my years supply of hugs, which I desperately needed. We then traveled to Muleshoe, TX where we had lunch with several of our close friends and got caught up on news there. We continued on to Portales, NM were we spent a day with my brother and his family. From there we traveled to Santa Fe, NM were my mother lives. During the next 6 days my entire side of the family (except for my nephew and his family from Seattle)came and stayed either with my mom in Santa Fe or my sister in Los Alamos. Every day was filled with wonderful food, talking and sharing, playing games, shopping, watching video's, laughing, eating, talking, eating and eating. I think we ate everything we had wanted to at least once. (Yes, we are both roly-poly:> :>)

My mother is doing very well. She hosted all the BIG meals with her incredible ability to cook what everyone likes most. She still can work circles around me and has so much energy. She just never sits down and she never quits. We were most thankful to be with her during this holiday and to see first hand her resilient spirit. We all missed daddy a great deal but were comforted by the many wonderful memories our family has of times shared in the past.

We then returned to Chicago. We arrived on News Year Eve and spent 12 midnight in down town Chicago watching fire works, one of Bill's favorite things on earth. We had a wonderful time everywhere we went and are so grateful to everyone who hosted us and took care of us and loved us so much.

While in the US we did come to realize more fully what "home" means. When we were in Irving, we said we were home. When we were in Muleshoe, we said we were home. When we were in Santa Fe, we said we were home. By the time we left Chicago, we were calling it home. And then we came home. "Home" is where people love you and welcome you and include you. We feel especially blessed to be "home" in so many places. Thank you to all our friends and family for creating home in so many places for us. That is such a blessing.

We returned to Nairobi on Mon., 10 Jan. 2000 at 10:00am. We drove to Maua that day and unpacked and hosted many friends who came to welcome us home. Both Bill and I returned to work the next day. We had much difficulty with jet lag as for 3 - 4 mornings we awoke at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. Sat. we were up at 5:00am and drove to Nairobi. That night at midnight we met an 18 member work team from Wisconsin. They are here for two weeks and are working on the x-ray department and renovating two houses and painting one. At the speed they are working, no telling what else they will do. We returned with them on Mon. afternoon. It is such a joy to have work teams here at Maua.

The time since we arrived "home" has been especially busy for both Bill and I. I had thought I would be teaching the same classes I had taught last year in this block, but am teaching all 17 hours of ICU nursing which includes several classes I have not taught. One of the team members from Wisconsin taught a class on hemodialysis. I have taught the class before but he taught it so well, I learned a great deal and will be able to teach it better in the future.

I do have a prayer request. One of the most senior nursing students has failed his hospital final two times. He is from this area and many people wanted the school to pass him no matter what. There has been great pressure but all the tutors have joined as a team to do what is right. The hospital leadership has joined with the school. (In the 2000 UMC Prayer Calendar we read a statement by James Callaghan. "A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on." That really fits our situation right now.) Please pray for the hospital and school who are trying so hard to do what is right. Please pray for everyone involved that the truth will win.

Thank you.

May God richly bless you in this new year and may you be filled to overflowing with His love, joy and peace.

In His grip,

Jerri and Bill

You can answer this letter at savuto@MAF.org

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